Papa Dan's Pastoral Days

SARDIS FELLOWSHIP BAPTIST CHURCH In January 2001 I was invited to speak one Sunday morning at the Sardis Fellowship Baptist Church in Chilliwack, BC.  I knew one couple in that church besides our daughter, son-in-law and three grandsons.  Following the service I was invited to speak again in February.  After the February service was finished, I met briefly with some of the members of the board of elders and they asked if I would be interested in meeting with the board to discuss an interim senior pastoral position.  That meeting with the board happened within a few days.  The church board was in contact with a potential pastoral candidate in the east and asked if I would serve three days a week until June, almost four months, when this candidate would be coming to speak.  I agreed.  I began my ministry as interim senior pastor in March. SFBC members blended their voices to form a Christmas Choir In June, the young couple from the east...

I'M RETIRED - NOW WHAT DO I DO? I'm retired!  Now what do I do?  When some people retire they fall apart.  They go into depression.  Some retirees end up in the hospital.  They don't know what do do.  Work has been their life and if they don't have a hobby or retirement plans, they're lost. Fortunately that was not my experience.  I had several ideas and things that I wanted to do.  The first thing that I did was treat myself to a new set of golf clubs.  The clubs that I owned, I had purchased in 1964.  I figured it was time to purchase some new ones.  I played three games, with my new clubs, wrenched my back at the third game and never played another game.  I eventually sold those clubs.  After my golf games ceased to be, I tried my luck at salmon fishing for a few years.   Yes!  Dan caught this 26 pounder Since I had worked with seniors, I  thought that maybe I would conduct workshops or se...

TRIBUTES PAID UPON RETIRING Dan, Leona & some family members listening  to the Sunday evening retirement program As an appendix to the previous posting, I want to share some excerpts from tributes received.  Some of these were read at the Sunday evening service.  Time did not permit the pastor to read them all.  I hesitated to include these, but since they are not personal notes but were shared publicly, I've placed all that were received in my blog.  What follows are a few lines from the tributes received.  A couple of the tributes were three pages long. From Dr. Arnold Cook, President of The Christian & Missionary Alliance in Canada: "The name Dan Goldsmith goes back many years in my memory.  I recall your father a way back in our Chatham church in Ontario.  Later I met you folks as a caring pastoral couple in Western Canada.  What a heritage! "The chapter I recall best has been Sevenoaks, playing second fid...

TIME TO RETIRE In the back of my mind I was thinking that I would like to retire when I reached my 70th birthday.  That idea changed when in January of 2000, I ended up in emergency in the hospital.  I started thinking.  How many years did I have left and did I need to keep working?  The senior pastor had spoken to me in the last year or so prior to this, asking that when I considered retiring that I would give him plenty of notice so he could start looking for a replacement. So, I gave my resignation notice that January, effective May 31, 2000. I reached my 69th birthday, three weeks after I retired, a year earlier than I had been thinking. Good Friends Fellowship retirement program All I can say is that we were spoiled.  Leona and I were given the royal treatment with two retirement events.  The Good Friends Fellowship had a wonderful program and lunch for us at one of their regular meetings.  Gertie Best was the president of the GF...

CELEBRATE AGING Celebrate Aging ad in the Sevenoaks Citizen - Winter 1997/1998   Sevenoaks Alliance Church celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1998.   I presented an idea to the Good Friends Fellowship and the Young At Heart that we work together in hosting a special event as a gift to the seniors in Abbotsford, our way of celebrating the church's 50th anniversary.   We called it Celebrate Aging.   A lot of preparation and work went into making this event a reality.  I must say that it would not have been the successful and exciting day that it was without the many hours spent by Cindy Matus, one of the church secretaries, in phoning and contacting the various organizations, scheduling the various events, insuring that the gym and classrooms needed were all in place, plus all the paper work , including the printing.  Much work was also done by the committee members and other volunteers, composed of folks from both of our senior's groups...

PROGRAMS AND SPECIAL EVENTS We sought to have a variety of programs and special events with both the Good Friends Fellowship and the Young At Heart .  The GFF met two mornings each month and concluded with a lunch.  During my time, the folks brought finger food to share, sandwiches, cookies, squares, etc.  Due to government regulations, since I retired, a hot meal is now prepared by the kitchen staff and helpers for a small charge. In the first year or so of my involvement with the Good Friends Fellowship , four teams took turns preparing and presenting the program.  That meant that each team would prepare the program once every two months.  Eventually the GFF committee planned and led all of the programs.  Throughout my years of ministry as pastor to seniors, I always had some creative and talented people serving on both committees. The Good Friends Fellowship programs included the occasional speaker, often a missionary speaker, panel discussions,...

PASTOR TO SENIORS When Pastor Harold Collins retired in December 1994, I became the pastor to seniors at Sevenoaks Alliance Church.  That was like icing on the cake.  To conclude my years of ministry, serving the seniors, enjoying their fellowship, food and fun, was very fulfilling for Leona and me. We had a lot of laughs together.  Seniors have learned to laugh at themselves.  I think that they laugh at themselves, their mistakes, etc. more then any other stage of life. We also had the privilege of walking with many seniors in their time of failing health, in their times of sorrow.  I thoroughly enjoyed those last years of my full time ministry and never ever regretted my decision, when leaving Kamloops, to accept the Sevenoaks invitation to join their pastoral staff.  I was abundantly blessed to have had the privilege of working with the hundreds of seniors that made Sevenoaks Alliance Church , their home church. I also appreciated the fact that a...

ADDITIONAL MINISTRIES PASSED ON TO ME Dan in his first office at Sevenoaks Since Sevenoaks Alliance Church had grown from about 400 to 2,000 under the leadership of Pastor Bill Goetz, secretaries and pastors were scattered all over the church building.  Rooms which had been designated for other purposes were made into offices.  My first office was tucked away under the balcony of the youth centre.  My desk was immediately under the balcony risers.  Padding had been placed over my desk, lest I hit my head on a riser when getting up from my desk.  My room was quiet, out of the way, with hardly anyone ever walking by my door.  Al Runge was pastor for four months, before he ever found my office.  Sometimes when I needed a 20 minute power nap, I would stretch out on the floor and I was never ever discovered. I learned early in my years at Sevenoaks that I should never point out a weakness or a need in the church, as I would be asked to fi...

PASTOR OF PERSONAL MINISTRIES The title given to me at Sevenoaks Alliance Church was pastor of personal ministries, which was basically pastoral care.  It encompassed the entire congregation.  Youth pastors, there were three of them, ministered to the families of the youth.  The pastor to seniors cared for the seniors.  The choir members and all those involved in the music ministries  received pastoral care from the music pastor .  However, I was still responsible to make certain that members and adherents received pastoral care and that no one was overlooked.  The pastor to seniors visited in the Abbotsford hospital Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I visited Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.   Dan visiting a church member in hospital People lying flat on their back, sometimes with a terminal illness, are often open to the gospel.  That's not always the case, but sometimes.  Let me share a couple of incidents which I exper...

MY LAST PASTORAL MOVE I enjoyed my ministry at Kamloops Alliance Church .  A couple of the highlights were some of the guest speakers that were there during my tenure.  We were abundantly blessed to have Ravi Zacharias share with us for one whole week, a Sunday through Friday.  Since those early years of his ministry he has become very well known around the world.  Today we are blessed by his weekly television ministry, Let My People Think , aired each Sunday. We hosted a four day prophecy weekend a couple of times.  I've forgotten some of those speakers, but one that I will never forget was a favorite radio preacher of my Dad's.  Dr. Lehman Strauss was with us for one of those prophecy events.  I had a few of his commentaries, but after he got back to his home, he sent about ten more of his books to me, as a gift.  What a gift! I'll never forget his sense of humor, which was evident at a Saturday morning brunch.  One of our senior l...